Cathy's Art Diary

Beautiful new commission for the Courtauld Gallery by Rachel Jones. The work consists of two large canvases made especially for the two chosen locations in the entrance foyer and ticket area. They are bright abstracts which contrast with and compliment the architecture of the space. Both are called Struck and are created in oil pastel on linen and evidently reference cartoons which I wouldn't have guessed. I love the light and colour they bring to the space and they create an inviting introduction to the building. No closing date given

Touching installation at the London Eye to celebrate women’s rugby and to mark England getting through to the World Cup final.   267 bespoke red roses make up the display in front of the Eye. On each red rose is the name of an England Red Roses player. The roses look striking en masse and it’s moving to read the names. I’m not sure I’d call it a trail but maybe the original plan was for different type of display. Anyway it sums up why it is always fun to wander round London. You never know what you’ll find. Closed 28 September 2025

Fabulous exhibition at the Royal Academy featuring work by Kerry James Marshall. This was clever, layered work and much more subtle that I’m imagined from just seeing images from it online. There was a deep awareness of art history that was used to reflect black experience and history. The labels were clearly written the explain the depth of the work and it introduced me to a variety of characters. Marshall had included a room of new work which reflected on the role of Africans in the slave trade which added a nuanced argument to the narrative. The works themselves were very painterly combining narrative with subtle details such as delicate still-lives and rather good dogs. Closes 18 January 2026 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Strange exhibition at the Royal Academy taking the image and legacy of the Beatles as a starting point. The work was by three students from the schools, Jacob Bullen, Dandy Day and Mitch Bowles who examine themes of obsession, fandom, and personal memory via the Fab Four. It’s a striking display and appears to include archive material however from the blurb I sense some of that might be manufactured, if not it would have been good to have some sense of the source which would have added more depth. Closed 2 November 2025

Clever exhibition at the Royal Academy examining the influence of Van Gogh on Anselm Kiefer. I’m glad I’d done a lecture on the topic as the connections weren’t always clear from the blurb. They not only look at similar subjects of rural life but at 18 Kiefer undertook a tour of places Van Gogh travelled and studied his technique. I love the monumentality of Kiefer and the paintings looked great in the space but they dwarfed the Van Gogh’s which were mainly corralled in the central room. It might have worked better to show the Van Gogh’s first then open up into the Kiefer. There was one Van Gogh after Millet which created a nice link to the two shows at the National Gallery at the moment and I guess therefore a link from Millet to Kiefer. Closed 26 October 2025 Reviews Times Guardian Telegraph Evening Standard

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery discussing the redisplay of the Sainsbury Wing following its recent refurbishment. Laura Llewellyn and Emma Capron did a wonderful double act taking us through the reasoning around the redesign and rehang. They started by looking at why the pre-1500 collection at the gallery is so strong but the problems of the old display including the traffic jams getting to the Arnolfini Wedding in the end room. They then looked at why they start the display with the Northern European work and the challenges in showing these largely small works and why the early Italian gold ground works are now in the far corner, opening the Italian chronology. Next we moved onto how they hung the ‘nave’ of the gallery to represent how the art would have been displayed in churches when it was new. Having visited several times I think this section is particularly successful. They looked at the two themed rooms they had created on nature and gold and discus...